CHECKUP

Published 5:13 pm, Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Instant noodles are cheap, convenient and tasty. Now for the bad news.

Researchers in South Korea, where instant noodle consumption is the highest in the world, studied 10,711 adults, a representative sample of the population enrolled in a large survey of health and nutrition. They found two major dietary patterns — the "traditional diet" of fish, rice and vegetables, and the "meat and fast-food" regimen, rich in meat and processed food, including instant noodles.

Neither diet as a whole was associated with metabolic syndrome, the constellation of symptoms that includes abdominal obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol, which may increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes.

But the study, in the August issue of The Journal of Nutrition, found that women who ate instant noodles at least twice a week were 68 percent more likely to have metabolic syndrome.

The effect was not apparent in men. Dr. Frank B. Hu, the senior author, a professor of nutrition and epidemiology at Harvard, said this may be because women report their diets more accurately or because postmenopausal women are more sensitive to the dietary effect of carbohydrates, sodium and saturated fat.